CITIZEN ALERT v1.196H.R. 977

When I first met my girlfriend Ashley she was preparing to go to law school to study patent law and the human genome. I was like, "what are you talking?" and she explained that companies would be and were already patenting sequences of human DNA. It was the craziest thing I'd ever heard. They were patenting sequences that they didn't even know what they were for yet. What was to come of all this? Designer babies and the licensing of blonde hair? Or was this the only way to further the science industry along to wipe out diseases. It can be argued both ways.

Lo and behold, my congressman, is ahead of the game and is introducing a bill that would BAN the patenting of human genetic material.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think about it all. Should we encourage the corporations to use their patents to find new ways to cure us or will they use them for eviiiil!

H. R. 977
To amend title 35, United States Code, to prohibit the patenting of human genetic material.


IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 9, 2007
Mr. BECERRA (for himself and Mr. WELDON of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary


A BILL
To amend title 35, United States Code, to prohibit the patenting of human genetic material.


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Genomic Research and Accessibility Act'.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON PATENT OF HUMAN GENETIC MATERIAL.

(a) In General- Chapter 10 of title 35, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

`Sec. 106. Prohibition on patent of human genetic material

`Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no patent may be obtained for a nucleotide sequence, or its functions or correlations, or the naturally occurring products it specifies.'.

(b) Table of Contents- The table of sections of chapter 10 of title 35, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`106. Prohibition on patent of human genetic material.'.

(c) Applicability- The amendment made by subsection (a) shall not apply to a patent issued before the date of the enactment of this Act.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.195QUIET NOW

It was an extremely busy weekend for the band and me with shows and recording and rehearsing, so give me a day to recover and tomorrow will chat about DNA.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.194FRENCH ALIENS?

France makes history today by releasing ALL of their government data pertaining to UFOs. I find this pretty cool myself. Now, we just need the US and Britain to follow suit.

www.cnes-geipan.fr

Do I believe in life on other planets? Yes.

Do I believe they've been visiting us? Eh. No, not so much anymore. I used to, but after years of reading science stuff and new planetary discoveries, I think the odds are against it. BUT that doesn't mean we shouldn't open every file we have on it. There could have been one fluke landing.

Anyway, check out the French website of data if you can. Their server is crashing big time from all the traffic.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.193ALIVE!

Great video blog on Iraqis speaking about life inside Iraq.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.192MYSPACE

Looks like MySpace has thrown its hat into the political ring with the launch of its new MYSPACE IMPACT.

http://impact.myspace.com

Explore and give it a whirl.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.191ASSIGNMENT ZERO

Check this out; it's kinda cool. Assignment Zero. It's open source reporting with journalists and amateurs working together, guided by editors to report on a story.

CLICK HERE

CITIZEN ALERT v1.190H. R. 1362

With Halliburton packing up their war loot and heading out of town - scratch that - out of the country, I think it's fitting that Deputy Waxman is hot on their trail with his posse. Today, the House takes up H. R. 1362, The Accountability in Contracting Act.

It is supposed to limit the abuse of no bid contracters, increase the government oversight to catch crooks like Halliburton and also to help deter any further corruption when it comes to NGOs.

READ HR 1362 BY CLICKING IT.

Give it a read and if you like what you see, then call your representative and tell them to vote for it. The only thing I don't like about it is it looks like it's ONLY going after contracts over $1,000,000,000. This may be cause they're after Halliburton types, but I think they should look at ALL of the contracts. Still it's a start.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.189A GOLD STAR FOR MY REP.

Moveon.org has giving my Representative Xavier Becerra a progressive thumbs up!

Progressives in Congress are standing strong—pushing for a swift, responsible exit that brings the troops home by the end of 2007. But Dick Cheney and the Republicans are on an all-out assault—saying that Democrats are "undermining the troops" by trying to end the war.1 And some Democrats in the middle are wavering.

Your representative, Rep. Becerra has been leading the way to get us out of Iraq quickly and safely and he could really use your support right now. Can you click below to thank Rep. Becerra and tell him to continue to push the leadership to bring our troops home by the end of this year?

http://pol.moveon.org/progressivehouse/?id=10008-6953987-pHnG4P&t=2

Voters elected Democrats in November to end the war. And new polling shows that 58% of Americans want us out of Iraq by 2008 or sooner.2 Congress can make that happen, and your representative is on the hunt, but some representatives are afraid.

They're nervous about taking any measures to end the war. It's a political calculation—they don't want to "own" the war, they want it to be Bush's problem. That's a failure of leadership: How do you tell our troops that they're being asked to fight and die because Democrats don't want to "own" the war?

The truth is Congress will be responsible for the war only if they do nothing to stop it.

The details of the plan are being hammered out in the next few days, so your note today could matter a lot. It just takes a few minutes, but if we all push together, we can take a big step toward ending the war.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.188BUSH'S FOREIGN POLICY: IRAQ IT; YOU FIX IT

Hey I just made that up! Maybe I should make a bumper sticker out of it. Hmmm.

The DEMS are playing hot potato with Iraq this week. Legislation's in; legislation's out. Then it's on again. Now, the DEMS are toning down blocking the President from moving on Iran, and they've gone back to harrassing him about Iraq.

Look the DEMS aren't angels in all this. They want the war OVER by 2008, before a Democratic President takes office. All the blame has to be put on President Bush, and the only way to do that is to end the war or at least our combative role in it.

Biden's back with a resolution: The Reid-Biden-Levin Joint Resolution To Revise United States Policy On Iraq. Read more here:

http://www.endingthewar.com/

Such a mess. I think I'll go make my bumper sticker or maybe a t-shirt.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.187OSAMA

Wow, I haven't written since Wednesday! Sorry, been taking a break.


This Saturday marked Osama Bin Laden's 50th birthday, and his 2006th day of freedom walking the Earth AFTER 9/11. I wanted to reflect on what I KNOW about him and what I've HEARD about him.

I KNOW his family and our President's family are friends. I KNOW that he is responsible for 9/11 because he admitted it in an audio taped message. I KNOW President Bush swore to capture him "dead or alive". I KNOW he has yet to be captured. I've HEARD he is supposed to be some great leader. I KNOW our President isn't much of one. I've HEARD Bin Laden fought the Soviets in Afghanistan during their invasion, but all I've really seen is footage of him walking around surrounded by bodyguards or firing a machine gun at targets while posing for the cameras.



I KNOW our President has posed for a few photographs himself. I KNOW our President got out of fighting in Vietnam by going into the National Guard. It's been reported he even went AWOL from that.

I've HEARD that we almost had Bin Laden at Tora Bora because he was heard on the radio during the fight. I KNOW people died at Tora Bora but that he escaped. I've HEARD reports that Bin Laden and the head of the Taliban ordered their followers to martyr themselves for the "jihad" as the U.S. troops stormed across Afghanistan while they themselves fled from the fighting.

While thousands of their followers die for a war that has so consumed these two men - Bin Laden and our President - I KNOW I have yet to see any footage of either of them firing a single shot themselves in an effort to fight it. I KNOW one likes to pose with a gun by his side, another poses with a turkey.

I KNOW both these men are fakes. I KNOW both these men are cowards and con artists. Osama, a nice portrait does not make you the next prophet, and Mr. President, a uniform does not make you a soldier. You are both still the spoiled rich kids your parents raised - arm chair tyrants who have forever endangered the only world we have.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.186TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

Wow! Look what the DEMS are bringing to a vote! IT'S ABOUT TIME!!

Leader Hoyer Announces Vote on DC Representation


WASHINGTON, DC - Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today on bringing voting rights for to the floor for a vote:


"I am pleased to announce that the House of Representatives will vote on a bill to give the people of Washington, DC full representation in the People's House by the end of the month. The people of the District have waited too long to have a voice in the House. Democrats promised to move this legislation in the first months of the new Congress and that is what we are doing."

CITIZEN ALERT v1.185WARS START AT DINNER

You want to see how a war begins. This is how wars begin. Just a group of "important" people gathering together to discuss how the world is going to unfold, who the bad guys are, and how best to scare each other.



Part TWO and THREE are here

CITIZEN ALERT v1.184THE F BOMB

The only thing you should take away from this clip is not that Coulter is an idiot, or that this is how she really thinks. Listen to the response she gets. Behind closed doors, THIS IS HOW ALL CONSERVATIVES THINK!

CITIZEN ALERT v1.183OSAMA WHO?

This from the Center for American Progress. Someone remind Tony Snow who is the leader of al Qaeda.

On Sunday, it will have been 2,000 days since the 9/11 terror attacks -- 2,000 days that Osama bin Laden has spent on the loose, living in freedom. Yesterday, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Tony Snow about new U.S. intelligence showing that bin Laden is in Pakistan actively re-establishing al Qaeda training camps. At first, Snow claimed that this was "an intelligence matter that I'm not going to be able to go into," despite the fact that the new National Intelligence Director had testified about this topic the day before.

He then suggested that bin Laden may now be "marginalized." A reporter responded, "Isn't he the leader of al Qaeda?" Snow answered, "Well, I don't know. It's a real question about who assumes operational command." But last month, Vice President Cheney referenced the #3 of al Qaeda "underneath Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri." In December, Snow himself referred to al Qaeda as "the bin Laden organization." Moreover, President Bush, Tony Snow, and other White House officials frequently quote bin Laden as proof that al Qaeda considers Iraq "the central battlefield in the war on terror."

Only when the Bush administration is asked to face the truth about the threat that bin Laden poses do they pretend he might be a bit player. Otherwise, the White House is happy to use bin Laden's propaganda to justify its failing policies.